Mayock on WGR

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As much I'd love to see Cousins here, there's NO chance in Hades that he will want to come to Buffalo. The weather, a defensive minded coach, worst WR group in the league. He'll be able to chose between Denver, Arizona, Jets, possibly Jacksonville....I'd bet he moves on to Arizona.

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Brees is a different level. And the "bad defense" that stopped him winning was not just below average like Washington's (28th in ypg and 19th in ppy in 2016; 21st ypg and 27th ppg in 2017) it was all time historically bad. The 2015 and 2016 New Orleans Saints defense is the worst 2 year defensive run in NFL history. It's a fact... give Brees a defense better than 27th in the league and he makes the playoffs 100% of the time.

Except for the years he had a #25, #26 D and didn't make the playoffs....I take your overall point though.

Brees is one of a short handful of QB in the league who can lift and carry a team, even shorter after Peyton Manning's decline and fall.

13 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

The Rivers comparison is a better one. But Rivers, until this season, had no running game, no defense and no healthy weapons. The one thing that Cousins had plenty of in 2015 and 2016 was weapons. Admittedly that disappeared in 2017 too and I actually think made his 2017 season more impressive. A poor man's Philip Rivers is pretty much what I think Cousins is.

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Except for the years he had a #25, #26 D and didn't make the playoffs....I take your overall point though.

Brees is one of a short handful of QB in the league who can lift and carry a team, even shorter after Peyton Manning's decline and fall.

I don't think the man is that poor with Cousins. JMO.

You are right sorry it is better than 25th. Not sure why I had 27th in my head. In his last 4 non playoff seasons the D ranks have been atrocious though, 31st, 28th, 32nd, 31st.

I think Cousins has a lot to prove to be there with Rivers career wise. Rivers has at times been a borderline top 5 QB. He is now borderline top 10 which is exactly where Cousins is.... I suppose I meant poor man's compared to peak Rivers. And peak Cousins should be now and the next couple of years really.

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Brees is a different level. And the "bad defense" that stopped him winning was not just below average like Washington's (28th in ypg and 19th in ppy in 2016; 21st ypg and 27th ppg in 2017) it was all time historically bad. The 2015 and 2016 New Orleans Saints defense is the worst 2 year defensive run in NFL history. It's a fact... give Brees a defense better than 27th in the league and he makes the playoffs 100% of the time.

The Rivers comparison is a better one. But Rivers, until this season, had no running game, no defense and no healthy weapons. The one thing that Cousins had plenty of in 2015 and 2016 was weapons. Admittedly that disappeared in 2017 too and I actually think made his 2017 season more impressive. A poor man's Philip Rivers is pretty much what I think Cousins is.

My overall point is that it takes a team to win in this league. Consistent drafting and on all sides of the ball. If we have carpenter from last year we win what? 5 games? Wilson would get all these clutch drives in the fourth when his team was down 9-7 and he scores to win 14-7 and he's a hero. Meanwhile his defense held the opposing team to under 10 points. If our d can fill some holes and get back to a few years ago under schwartz and you combine it with a top 10 or better offense you have a lights out team.

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As much I'd love to see Cousins here, there's NO chance in Hades that he will want to come to Buffalo. The weather, a defensive minded coach, worst WR group in the league. He'll be able to chose between Denver, Arizona, Jets, possibly Jacksonville....I'd bet he moves on to Arizona.

The weather? He's a Michigan guy, he's not bothered by the weather.

The WR group was bad last year, but they added to it. You just need to hope they're healthy. But if you have 16 games of Benjamin, Jones, Streater, Thompson (maybe), McCoy, Clay, plus an FA then there are worse groups. The issue this year was availability. The best guys on the list were acquired mid-season and injured for a portion of the year.

Defensive HC is an issue?

Denver - Defensive HC

Arizona - Defensive HC & First time HC

Jets - Defensive HC

Jacksonville - A HC who is quoted saying that ideally his QB would throw 0 times per game.

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The going rate for a starting QB is what it is. Jimmy G just signed a contract that will pay him about $27.5 M per season. Kirk Cousins is going to sign a contract that will put him in the same stratosphere.

For those complaining about the $ it would cost to bring in Cousins, think about this: last year the Bears payed nearly $15 M for Mike Glennon. Yes, Mike Glennon -- and then they traded up a spot to draft Trubisky high in the first round AFTER signing him. If the Bills elect to move on from Tyrod, who will cost about $16 M in 2018 if they keep him, they will have to spend about that much money for even a "bridge QB" (Bradford or whomever) in ADDITION to the dead money for releasing/trading Tyrod.

Realize also that the cap can be navigated by smart pencil-pushers. For example, there is some dead money (e.g. the un-amortized $ for Dareus and hypothetically speaking Tyrod) that will clear the books after 2018, meaning that the Cousins contract can be structured to push much of the cap hit BEYOND 2018. And the Pegulas' have the deep pockets to pay the contract in such a way that an up-front signing bonus (which can be spread out over the life of the contract) can help negate the 2018 cap impact.

That is why I am on board with Plan A being a full court press to attract Cousins -- which will also allow the team to hang onto all four of their picks in the first two rounds, none of which would have to be devoted to a QB pick. That's four players that could hopefully be immediate contributors at a controlled cost. The controlled cost for the 4 players also helps to negate the $ that would have had to be spent in free agency at those respective positions and further mitigates the $ spent on Cousins.

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I'm sure that's what Washington was saying 4 years ago when they made Cousins then starter. 26-30 and 1 winning season later, they replaced him with....Alex Smith.

They must have gotten tired of all that success.

4 hours ago, H2o said:

If we do grab Cousins in FA, forget the cost which as someone mentioned could be a bargain in 2-3 years, he would be the best QB we have had since Jim Kelly. He's definitely an upgrade over Tyrod, a massive upgrade as a passer. It would also allow us to address many of our other needs with all of those draft picks. It could truly turn out to be the elevation of this franchise from scraping to get in to actually contending in the AFC for many years to come.

The Bills current QB is the best QB since Jim Kelly....so what? What other team has Cousins made a contender for years? The Redskins were 10-6 with RG3, then he flamed out so they figured Cousins was just what they needed. And....?

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I'm sure that's what Washington was saying 4 years ago when they made Cousins then starter. 26-30 and 1 winning season later, they replaced him with....Alex Smith.

They must have gotten tired of all that success.

The Bills current QB is the best QB since Jim Kelly....so what? What other team has Cousins made a contender for years? The Redskins were 10-6 with RG3, then he flamed out so they figured Cousins was just what they needed. And....?

Kujo, bust (so far), that I"ll give you....as for Ragland, he was drafted for Rex's scheme, so trading him for a 4th was just a necessary business move, but he looks the part so far in KC and he's a 2nd rounder, so you might want to wait on that one....Lawson was a very good run stopper but yes, he's been largely unhealthy but still young and hard to tell what he could become with hopefully the right (new) athletic trainers and with a HC who knows how to use him.

As for Zay....c'mon, really? You're throwing the guy under the bus after his Rookie year? He struggled, of course...but then you find out he had a shoulder injury the entire year AND he was a Rookie. Look at the Rookie numbers, without injury mind you, of the top 10 All-Time greats....a couple were staggering and obvious they would be eventual HOFers, i.e. Moss, but others did NOT look like they would amount to much after their first year. Let's at least give him a second season before we're throwing in the towel.

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I like Mayock for what he brings in his role as a media analyst, but that’s as far as it goes. He is not a scout and doesn’t possess a fraction of the insight on all these players as scouts and other personnel evaluators do. It’s just not his full time gig. I take everything he says with a grain of salt. From Sanchez over Stafford to Gabbert over Newton and the many players at positions in between over the years, his “evaluations” leave a lot to be desired.

I bet you could take the very best scouts of all time and find almost as many of those things. He's very good. He watches a ton of tape. Granted not as much as a full time scout but pretty close. It's likely an 70 hour a week job for him. And he looks for the same things scouts look for, outside of specific team needs and wants only the scouts know.

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You're not the first person to say this. Why do you think this? Contracts can be structured a number of ways. The Bills can sign Cousins if they choose to

I'm quite aware they can structure the deal anyway, anyhow. This years cap space is minuscule compared to next years current # (31 (40 if we dump Tyrod) vs 86). Back load the deal (ala Stafford), less the first year...more toward the end. I'm all for it. Build the rest of the team via draft and a few low priced FA's and let them take off. I don't think it'll happen, but don't want them to get into a position where they end up in a cap space hell in a couple years w/ a bad contract for Cousins.

With that said though, I think they'll go cheap and pick up a QB in the draft so they don't have that huge contract taking up all that space. They'll hope they get lucky and things will work out as opposed to taking the "sure" thing. This is a tough one (because we've all been waiting for that one QB to take over since Kelly retired), but I hope they don't get rid of all the picks we've accumulated to move up. We all have our opinions and the only ones that matters are in the Bills FO. I feel I'm all over the board on this, but that's my one thing I know for sure.....keep the picks and hope for the best regarding drafting a QB.